Jewelry

Art experts warn that a hoard of royal jewelry taken during a daring heist at one of Germany's most famous museums could disappear forever with the pieces being broken up and their gemstones removed for sale.

Dozens of items stolen from an 18th century collection at Dresden's Grünes Gewölbe museum, or Green Vault, are so identifiable that it would be very difficult for the thieves to sell them on the open market, said Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the world’s largest private database of lost and stolen art, The Art Loss Register.

"If they broke them down, they would be able to sell individual diamonds for a price," he said.

But even the loose stones may prove a challenge for the thieves to pawn off.

"Because these are 18th century cut, they are not common for current use," Radcliff said. "There is a danger they might try to re-cut them."

The collection was founded in the German state of Saxony by August the Strong, a Saxon ruler who later served as the king of Poland, and contains items that hold invaluable cultural value, museum officials said.

“The fact that these are precious cultural objects to Saxons and the world means nothing to these criminals,” said Christopher Marinello with Art Recovery International, a lawyer and expert in recovering stolen, looted and missing works of art. "They are cold-hearted cultural barbarians who will steal from their own mother."

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Police did not provide a full list or detailed description of all the stolen jewelry, but pictures show several brooches, a sword and a necklace among the stolen items.

Some German media have reported that the value of the jewelry could top hundreds of millions of euros, while museum officials say the items are "priceless."

The director of the Dresden State Art Collections, Marion Ackermann, said it’s impossible to describe the material value of the stolen artifacts because their historical significance is much greater.

“We cannot put a value on it because it’s unsellable,” Ackermann said. “There is no financial value we work with.”

So the value put on the stolen jewels by the press is purely theoretical, Radcliffe said. In fact, putting a price on them can be misleading, he added.

"This type of jewelry collection never comes onto the market, and therefore nobody knows what it would achieve if sold," Radcliffe said.

“Whatever the value is, if these items are broken down or sold individually, they would be worth pennies compared to their true value and the important thing is to get them back intact,” he said.

Details of the stolen items could be entered into a database of stolen artifacts in the hopes they can raise the alarm of suspicious buyers, Radcliffe said, but if the criminals find it too difficult to monetize them, there is a chance they could simply abandon them.

“The Swedish crown jewels, which were stolen several years ago, were recovered when they were left in a bin, so sometimes the thieves find that these are too hot to hold.”

Meanwhile, Marinello said it’s paramount for law enforcement to act fast if there is to be any hope of recovering the artifacts in their original form.

“There is no time to lose,” he said.

The police also need to make it known that they want these pieces returned intact and if they are broken up, the penalties will be more severe, Marinello added.

German investigators, who are still analyzing the crime scene, told NBC News on Tuesday the suspects are still on the run. They didn't detail their next steps, but did say that a burned-out car found two and a half miles away from the museum was tied to the break-in.

“If they are going to issue a reward for information, it should come now before the gold is melted down and stones and diamonds are removed. This needs to be treated like a hostage situation,” Marinello said.

German authorities released surveillance video Monday that showed thieves using an ax to break into one of Europe’s most important collections of royal treasures and steal dozens of pieces of jewelry.

The video shows two people walking into Dresden’s Grünes Gewölbe museum, or the Green Vault, after smashing a window overnight to gain entry.

Using a flashlight, the pair appears to immediately target a display case. One of the thieves can then be seen repeatedly swinging an ax at it.

Nov. 25, 201900:35

Authorities have said the thieves stole roughly 100 pieces of royal jewelry from the collection founded in the 18th century in the German state of Saxony by August the Strong, a Saxon ruler who later served as the king of Poland.

In an interview with the public broadcaster ZDF, State Art Collections Director Marion Ackermann said the burglars weren’t able to steal all of the pieces from the three sets of jewelry that they appear to have targeted.

The jewelry was sewn into the surface of the cabinet, she said, and some of those pieces remained at the museum Monday.

The burglary took just a few minutes, and witnesses described the thieves' getaway car as an Audi A6 — the same car that was found burnt out in an underground garage nearby, police in Dresden said Monday.

Authorities said the car was still being investigated, as was a fire at a power substation that shut down street lighting in the area.

German media have reported that the value of the stolen jewelry could top hundreds of millions of euros, though Ackerman has said their value was “priceless.”

Saxony’s interior minister, Roland Woeller, told reporters that the cultural loss was “inestimable.”

“The whole of Saxony was stolen from,” Woeller said. “This is an attack on the cultural identity of all Saxons and the state of Saxony.”

Among the museum's pieces are an 18th century golden coffee set and a table-size sculpture of an Indian royal court from the 18th century, made out of gold, silver, enamel, precious stones and pearls, The Associated Press reported.

One of the museum's most famous pieces, the 41-carat “Green Diamond,” was on loan to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art at the time of the heist.

In a statement, Met Director Max Hollein said the museum was “devastated to hear of this theft. The Met, and I am sure the entire museum community, is hoping for the immediate and safe return of these most important pieces.“

Associated Press contributed.

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